‘Airmen Are the Best Defense,’ Col. Dunn Says at All Call
By Ray Bowden, U.S. Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. Air Force Academy —
Col. Troy Dunn, commander of the 10th Air Base Wing, hosted an all call in front of a full house Nov. 4 in Arnold Hall.
Along with thanking the 3,000 Total Force Airmen assigned to the wing’s 11 squadrons and two staff agencies and their families, he praised the positive results of the Defense Department Climate Survey taken across the wing earlier this year.
“The [survey] response was a lot higher and a lot better than last year and the results show the level of concern and care for Airmen and their families at the wing is at an all-time high,” he said.
Dunn said he and his senior staff members read and studied every comment in the survey’s comment section.
“Thank you for your input, your servant leadership and everything you do on a daily basis,” he said. “Servant leadership is Airmen taking care of cadets, Airmen, and their families and you are doing an incredible job. You are paving the way for wing operations across the Air Force.”
One area related to the survey Dunn will check into, he said, is the indication that some Airmen assigned at the wing may feel underappreciated. To address the issue, he asked the audience to provide feedback.
“I need your feedback,” he said. “‘What does feeling appreciated feel like and look like to you? I ask you to let me know. Let’s address the issue as a team.”
Dunn also talked to the audience about his effort to ensure complete alignment of the mission of the 10th ABW with Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein’s three focus areas: revitalizing squadrons, strengthening joint leaders and teams, and advancing multi-domain, multi-functional command and control.
“Our Air Force is one team,” he said. “We need to make sure we are familiar with these focus areas. Our five core missions [air and space superiority; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; rapid global mobility; global strike; and command and control] haven’t changed since the beginning of our Air Force. We will continue to align our mission with that of the Air Force.”
To make sure the 10th ABW supports the objectives of the Air Force’s top officer, Dunn shared his three priorities for the wing.
“The first is focus on the 10th ABW core mission of providing quality support to enhance the education and development of more than 4,000 future Air Force leaders,” he said.
The second focus is to continue eradicating responsibilities from the 10th ABW’s ledgers that are redundant or simply do not need to be done, Dunn said.
“I count on you to tell me what we need to stop doing,” he said. “Airmen are the best defense against unnecessary spending and requirements that may detract from the mission.”
Dunn said his third focus is giving Airmen time back.
“This is part of taking care of each other,” he said. “You do a tremendous job — nothing happens here without the 10th ABW touching it and I expect every supervisor at every level to monitor their Airmen’s work load. If we can lessen that load and give our Airmen more time, let’s do it.”
A climate of care and concern for Airmen is the foundation of a successful organization, Dunn said.
“Check on your teammates,” he said. “I give everyone in this wing permission to ask ‘How are you doing?’ and mean it,” he said. “This is the only place in the Air Force that’s a college campus and a military installation fused together as one – we do awesome and inspiring things here but we couldn’t do it without the care and concern we have for each other.”
Dunn ended the all call by asking the audience to remember their deployed coworkers.
“Let’s continue to take care of our deployed Airmen and their families who support the warfighting effort,” he said. “They’re out there doing great Air Force work for our nation.”